McNastie Knits

Monday, January 09, 2012

This is our new addition to the family. He's very wee, very cute and absolutely gorgeous.
Our older bunny, Minoes, has been very naughtly lately and we've discovered that when bunnies are very naughty and destructive (you should see the state of our new skirting boards and some plaster work) it usually means that they are bored and lonely and since humans don't speak bunny very well, it was better to get her her own wee friend. I think moving to the new place which is bigger than the last place, has made her realise that she was the only bunny in the house. Poor wee Minoes.

Anyway, back to Hobbs. He's called Hobbs after the philosopher and also because its sounds a wee bit like hops which is what bunnies do a lot of. It so far so good with him and Minoes. She seems fine with him and hasn't attacked nearly so many evil boards of skirting or him. She did do the dominance dance but unfortunately she has started spraying bunny pee all over the place.This is a territory thing so we've moved Hobbs into his own cage now. They can decide when and if they want to move in together themselves. At the moment, Hobbs is only 12 weeks old and has the biggest back paws ever. I think that means, he might be a big bunny but I'm not sure. The woman in the shop was a bit vague. Anyway, he's landed in a house full of nutters and is very quickly getting used to everyone and everything.

On to a bit of knitting now. I made Frank's latest Fuzzy Feet and they fit me. So I've got yet another pair of slippers. They felted a bit too much in the wash. Now on pair 2 which are going a lot slower as I have to knit them even bigger but should be okay when I've finished. If they are too big then I'm cutting a bit of and stitching them up (after felting) and if they're too wee, then I'll start again with different yarn. Maybe go and visit the new yarn shop round the corner from my work today. Might be fun :o)

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Each time I post here, I promise to be more consistent about writing. Well this time I'm not because I obviously can't keep this particular promise. Its not that I don't like writing; I do. I just prefer doing other things, like knitting, baking, drinking beer, watching rugby etc etc. There seems to be plenty to do and in the rare moments of boredom, I never seem to think about updating the blog.

Well here we go again but first a wee look at 2011

Jan - never did get those Bettie's finished. Frogged them and did something else completely
Feb - Himself's big birthday. Party - booze - presents - fun
March - Himself's best friend's big birthday bash in A'dam - got insulted by Himself's BFF's Missus and still not exactly forgiven her.
April - moved into the still unfinished new place.
May - missed the A'dam 7's, first time in 12 years because of double back to back work travel.
June - went to Estonia for work and pleasure - Estonia is a knitters paradise. Came back with a suitcase full of yarn
July - Mum came over - hired her a wheelchair and saved us both some pain. Her ankle and my ears from the whining.
August - flat still not finished but getting ready for going to New Zealand. Has been the wettest summer ever so hoping that NZ has a warm spring.
September - New Zealand for the RWC2011 - Feckin Freezing, glad I brought the thermals - lovely place though, will need to go back. the natives are really really friendly and lovely and its just gorgeous. Excellent time had by all.
October. - back from NZ - my big birthday - party, booze, food, presents - RWC2011 final - NZ win against France which makes me very happy (don't like the French rugby team)
November - loads of business travel and a visit from Mess. Rush knitting for Chickie's Wedding. Yes my Aussie mate got married to a gorgeous Canadian in NYC.
December - NYC for chickie's wedding- shawl for me finished in time. elbow length gloves for chickie finished 1 hour before landing. Mum came for a visit (another wheelchair but she gets fixed this month) Orphan's Christmas and then Trisa and Pete over for New Year.

Breath in :o)

2012 so far......

Finished gloves for Evgenia's Christmas. She's Russian so gets her presents on the 6th. Lucky that isn't it considering I forgot to put her on my Christmas knit list?

Started Frank's fuzzy feet since one of his boats has a hole in it and the other is missing in action (probably still in a box somewhere) Anyway the floor is cold in the new place which is good in summer but a bit chilly in winter. The new place is on the ground floor, it has wooden floors and they forgot to install one of the windows in the cellar. To spinkle a bit of insult on injury here, they haven't even ordered the fecking window, as a result, the back part of the cellar is very damp and we have a nice bit of mould growing up our wall next to the window. Oh and back part of the cellar is now a hibernation camp for the biggest swarm of mosquitoes I have ever seen or want to see again in my life. At least they are hibernating. Occasionally one wakes up and goes fly about upstairs but they are that slow, its almost no fun at all killing them. I say almost no fun but there is a certain amount of satisfaction to be had squashing the buggers.

Actually there is a list of things that are not yet right with the new place and I'm pig sick of it. I love the flat, I'm just sick of the last minute things which annoy me but which are not getting done. The builder trys to pacify me by sending the workmen to do bits at time. This was supposed to be finished in 2010. Its now 2012 and I still can't use my cellar.

The list :

Damp in the garden room - reported in October when we noticed it.

Damp in the bedroom - no known cause, reported also in Ocotber to builder - no report from him on what action is to be taken

Damp in kitchen - not reported yet. Saving that for tomorrows e-mail to him

Skirting board sticking out. great for bunny to snack on but dangerous for toes. Reported in December

door frames too far out for the wall in bathroom and toilet. Builder Snr says that its because of the tiles. My answer was, I don't care, it looks like shit so fix it. Still nothing - reported 2 days after doors were installed in April

Damp in Cellar and missing window. - lastest report is that we're waiting on an industrial drying machine which will be installed in the cellar. to me that's pointless unless they install a window. Window isn't even ordered yet.

Upstairs balcony takes away too much light. Underside supposed to be painted white. Still waiting on the painter to do that. Think that's from round about June or July

Front door squeaking. Been doing that since we moved in. Reported day 1

Crack between door frame and wall because of the door in the spare room not fitting properly due to 20 layers of paint on it. that's getting sorted on Wednesday next week.

Draft coming through windows in Garden room. both sets. No idea what will happen with that but its there.

Garden not nearly finished that the so-called gardener is rubbish. You tell him where you want a plant/tree and he'll plant it about 1 meter away from where you wanted it or somewhere entirely different for some stupid reason which has got nothing to do with logic or reason or even where the sun is.

Was sort of lied to about the size of the Garden but not a lot I can do about that since the builder is actually a lawyer too and never wrote anything down. Clever monkey

Shower tray has sunk towards the back corner where no-one stands and water has been pissing down the back wall into the cellar making things a bit wetter if that is at all possible. its got nothing to do with weight which builder Junior tried to blame it on to his dad but luckily builder senior (his dad) said that weight shouldn't have anything to do with it, its just been installed incorrectly. They came out and made a temporary repair. Still waiting on it being repaired properly. have now sent 2 e-mails and still no reply. The painter however did knock the door last night and asked if he could sort out the door next week. Not sure if that is a result of the e-mail but Im still a bit annoyed by the whole thing.

Decided that if things don't improve or get fixed very shortly, I'll consider legal action but all I want really is for him to do the work that needs done and finish the fecking job.

Ahhhhh. next time I'm posting pictures of what needs to be done along with the company's name and address. See if that gets the work done or me slapped with a liable suit.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The weather outside is frightful, there's no fire to be delightful and I do have places to go, so turn off the snow RIGHT NOW or I'll have a hissy fit.
Last night was Burns night so I had a nice wee Glen Garioch but no haggis. We're doing a belated Burns night on Sunday instead with Haggis, neeps, tatties, the works. This does pose a slight problem though.
Where does one hunt haggis in Germany?
I've been up die Bergen and through die Wälder and no haggis to be seen, not even a sniff of one. They're much happier in their natural habitat (see photo) and trying to find nice mountains like this in the Berlin area is slightly problematic. You see, other than the slight incline into Prenzl'berg, Berlin is as flat as a pancake. Anyway to cut a long story short, we're resorting to a raiding the freezer of one of my Scottish friends who managed to bag one last time she was home.

Now you may think that these wee beasties are really cute and cuddly but they're not. They're very ferocious and when startled, can do some serious damage. I once had a very nasty finger wound from one. It stopped me knitting for at least 30 minutes.
Talking of knitting. Harriet's Betties got frogged. Yes its the pattern is stretchy, its lovely, its lacy etc but I realized that I really would need to measure her legs etc and I had to decide that approximately 3 cm before I started the ribbing on sock 1. So forgged they got and I did something completely unorthadox. I went out and bought a present. I got her a very good book and I also managed to rattle off a bandana/scarf/shawl thingumie with some left over lace yarn. I managed to get it done and blocked with2 hours to spare before I met up with everyone. Not bad at all really.
My 3 projects (yes I'm trying my best to keep to the no more than 3 on the go resolution) at the moment are Gloria which has been retrieved from the naughty corner, partially frogged and re-knitted. A jumper (sweater) for Frank and a wee pair of Neefje Steefje socks. I did find 3/4 of a 'squew' sock on the couch but I think that's desined for the frog pond. I don't really like it and it looks strange. Maybe just some plain vanilla socks with that yarn instead. Hmm dunno really. I'll think about it.
I've also been to London (work thing) and while there I managed to go visit Liberty's again. I should just forget that shop is there but I love it and something drags me past it every time I'm in the area.
It smells nice, the staff are friendly and they have fantastic sales twice per year. They also do mail order now. Anyway I stopped in there not intending to buy anything and I nearly managed. I put down the orangy kidsilk aura which was on sale for less than half the price because it was too orange, I put back the Kim Hargreaves book that was screaming for me to buy it AND the other Rowan book which had some scrummy things in it. I was walking past the table with piles of bargins on it and on my way back to the lift to the exit when I spied it. There sitting on the bargin table like a siren calling to me were some white boxes with half price written on them. Of course I had to look and that was it, I'd made a fatal mistake, I'd opened the box and fell in love with the lovely half price pure cashmere dk which was nesting in there and looking all soft and cuddly. Well in for a penny, in for a pound. I bought the box even though its baby pink and not exactly my colour but I couldn't leave it alone at that price. AND I also bought 4 balls of kid silk haze in silver. Why, I'm not exactly sure but I know it that it was good idea at the time. I reckon I'll make my mum a nice cardi with the cashmere and I'll have a think about what to do with the kid silk haze.
So in order to make room in my stash for the new commers, I'm doing some stash knitting. Frank's jumper is from some dark grey aran which I bought with the intentions of kniting an Aran jumper for him but he picked this one himself so he'd better like it.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

is paved with broken New Year's Resolutions and too many WIPs on the needles.
But I had to! Honest. You see we're supposed to have this secret Santa thing on Saturday. Yes I know that its either late or very early indeed but somehow, that's just the way that its happened. Anyhoo, the reciever of my secret Santa present likes purple, likes knee-high lacey socks and loves hand made things and since I'm a lunatic and need to put myself under enormous amounts of pressure, I thought 'hey, lets make this person some purple lacey knee-high socks/stockings for secret santa'.
I started theses off in Zauberbal in a nice pinky purple - black purple colour and attempted to knit them in magic loop. That kind of backfired so they got frogged back to the toe.
I then decided to keep going but on 3 needles as the pattern suggests. and then I realised that if I wanted to get these babies finished before the Jan 15th 2012 then I'd better get some thicker yarn and some bigger needles so they got frogged again. This time all the way.
I then cast on with wollmeise in a nice purpley colour and got nearly to the heel of sock one when I realise that the center wasn't lined up properly so I frogged again and panicked. I mean I know I knit fast but 2 knee high's before saturday and only the toe and 2 pattern repeats finished!!!
Anyway, got a phone call to postpone the secret santa until the 29th so the pressure is off but I will finish these babies before I start anything else. I need to finish a project.
I did manage to knit and finish socks for the neefje while on my way to NL over the weekend. He was very pleased and shoved them on his wee feet straight away. He also informed me that his wee sister likes her wee neckerchiefs but that he's not to fond of his crockodile scarf and mittens. He thinks they're too scary and that he would like socks instead. Very nicely done. First the praise bit and then the blow. Diplomatic career ahead of this one I think :o)

Thursday, January 06, 2011

And for those of you out there who are not aware, Hell has indeed frozen over. I've started to blog again :o) We've had snow, ice and all sorts of freezing stuff going on for months now and even I'm getting bored with it.

Christmas and New Year were good not only coz I got really nice presents BUT also because Hogmany (31st of December) signified the last day of a horrible year.

I've not posted since August 2010. There are various reasons for that which I won't go into too much but basically 2010 sucked big time and I'm glad to see the back of it. On to 2011 :o)

2011 has started off quite well and I've got a couple of resolutions which I will try to keep. Number 1 on the list is to chill out and not to take things so personally which is going okay-ish. There are still certain people who still annoy me just by breathing but my new zen approach will hopefully help me to ignore their normal caustic personalities and not get upset with the mere thought being in the same place at the same time as they are.

Number 2 on my list is that I shouldn't have any more than 3 knitting projects on the needles at any point in time. One of them always has to be a protable project and one has to be selfish knitting. The portable and selfish can be one and the same but hopefully this way, it will motivate me to finish some things and not have 1000s of UFOs kicking around. About UFO's, I've been frogging big time. I had a stash clearout and a UFO tidy-up.

Number 3 is to try and be more organised. iPhone calander is a wonderful thing and so far, so good. I've been tidying out my e-mails and updating my stash AND throwing things out.

Over to the side here is what I've got on the needles a the moment. This is my selfish and portable for now. Its in Anny Blatt - Lady Blatt and its gorgeous. So far its less than 1 ball of main colour per mitten and less than half a ball on the contrast colour. I'm now on the thumb of the first mitten so I feel secure in saying that. Considering that I'll have 2 of each colour left over then I might want to knit a matching hat or something. No point in wasting this gorgeous yarn.

the date for the big move is not yet set in stone but it should be at the end of March. Only 6 months over the original date of moving in but still we'll be getting to move in and I can't wait. I feel like I've been putting so many things on hold for so long now. Not just me but Mr McNastie too.

The good news is that we're both going to New Zealand for the rugby world cup this year and we have tickets for all of Scotland's games again including the big one in Auckland versus the Auld Enemy at Eden Park. Before we travel quite so far though, we're off to NL soon. Quick tour of the in-laws and back to Berlin with the usual haul of dutch goodies. The big NZ tour isn't until September anyway and I'm sure we'll have some mini trips inbetween so it won't all be work and no play.

Oh and you may have noticed that I've burned BerlinerBabe. 2010 reason's behind it but McNastie is here to stay.

Actually that's 8 FO's so not too bad really. Now I don't feel nearly so guilty about buying 14 balls of Drops silk tweed and another Hanne Falkenburg kit. I have no idea what to do with the silk tweed but it was too nice to leave in the shop especially when it was reduced to silly money. I blame Winni again. She is my dealer/pusher and told me that the wee LYS in Alt Tegel has a SSV (summer sale). Unfortunately Drops will be leaving their stock forever (something to do with Drops making things difficult for stockists) which is a shame but hence the summer sale. its a shame as I kind of like Drops but I suppose if I really want it, I can order it online.

I managed to get a bit of knitting done while on holiday. The Anastasia socks are for me and were completed not while cycling along the Elbe as that is a bit too complicated but at various stops along the Elbe while on bike tour.

Since the photos of Frank's socks won't load then the photos from the Elberadweg won't either :o( which is a bit of bummer as its very pretty. We were really lucky with the weather too and cashed in our luck when we booked the train back on Saturday and missed the high water and floods where we'd been staying. If anyone is looking to start a business, there is a distinct lack of campsites between Torgau and Meissen.

Oh and boys and girls, that extra centimeter really does matter. I had a really, really sore behind only a few days into the tour and that never normally happens. We discovered that my saddle was too far back so we moved it 1cm forward. It made the biggest improvement ever. Actually so much improvement that we managed 75km the next day. All in all we did about 500km on our bikes.

I actually enjoyed things soo much that I've decided to get even fitter and signed up for a new gym which has spinning classes. Not the wooly spinning stuff but the bike spinning stuff which I used to do ages ago and loved it.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

They're finished at last! Diana now has her socks and incidentally that's also one of her legs in them. Will get a better photo some other day but that's the best I can do considering that it's half time in the Germany v Spain semi- final and damn hot. Poor soul had to stuggle to get them on and then had to almost scrape them off. Too hot for wooly stuff.